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in Third World states for many years. Thus, one of the great fic- tions is that the bulk of refugees are housed in the industrialized countries of the West, which in turn has elicited repeated com- plaints of compassion fatigue. In fact, the exact opposite of this is true. Figure 1.1 presents data on those states that housed the largest number of refugees at the end of 2007. Altogether, less than 10% of present-day refugees are in countries where the per capita income is more than $10,000, while fully half are in countries with a per capita income of $2,000 or less. The larger and more obvious point is that countries that are the most poorly equipped to handle refugee flows due to their own economic insecurity are the same states that have been forced to provide the lion’s share of refugee protection. A separate but related category consists of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Much like refugees, IDPs have been forced to flee their homes and their livelihoods and move some place else in order to secure safety. However, what differentiates IDPs from refugees is that the latter have crossed their own national borders, while the former have not. Figure 1.2 presents an overview of the world’s ref- ugee and IDP population over the course of the past two decades. The IDP phenomenon has truly been remarkable. Roberta Cohen, one of the leading experts on this subject, has pointed out that when first counted in 1982, there were 1.2 million IDPs in only 11 countries. However, in just four years, this total had increased to 14 million, and by 1997 there were more than 20 million IDPs in 35 to 40 countries (Cohen 2007). Cohen attributes this startling increase in IDPs to the internal conflicts that began after the end of the Cold 2 Background and History TABLE 1.1 Top Ten Refugee Producing States, 2008 Country Number Afghanistan 2,833,128 Iraq 1,903,519 Somalia 561,154 Sudan 419,248 Colombia 373,532 Democratic Republic Congo 367,995 Occupied Palestinian Authority 340,016 Vietnam 328,183 Burundi 281,592 Turkey 214,378 Source: UNHCR, “2008 Global Trends.”